Summary Report of the Research Data Management Study Group

File(s):

The Research Data Management Study Group (RDMSG) conducted focused
interviews with representatives from a number of research communities,
to assess current researcher data assets, needs, and funding
situations. The interviews revealed a broad diversity in asset content
and format, a large number of disparate needs, and an inadequate
funding base for many researchers. The study group proposes a
one-year pilot project to address the most common, most urgent subset
of these issues. Specific pilot pro ject activities would include
partnership with between three and five campus communities in order to
develop and maintain a network of distributed storage nodes, with
mechanisms for au- tomated backup and archival support of data stored
on them, access to storage capacity via multiple standardized
protocols, and management interfaces allowing simple, flexible,
researcher-controlled assignment of access management policies; and
provision of consultation services to researchers attempting to
preserve existing or new assets: assistance would focus on helping
researchers locate existing cam- pus resources, determining
appropriate metadata standards and resolving format compatibility
issues, and helping to develop sustainable preservation workflows.
These actions will address critical common needs of many research
communities, pro- viding support that will enhance the quality and
maintainability of research efforts, and alleviating the risk of
losing a valuable part of the scholarly record.